Taste of Honey pocketed her phone and gave Mark a broad smile. “Good news,” she announced loudly. A few groupies looked over curiously. She scowled at them and snapped, “Mind your business. Go take care of the drummer for a change. Or the bass player. One of the ones who doesn’t get much action.”

“Stop bogarting Mark, then,” Wild Honey Pie snapped. “You’ve been hogging all his attention lately.”

“I am trying to get him a chance to see his kid. Is that okay with you? Do you have a problem with the man wanting to see his kid?” Taste of Honey snapped.

Eleanor Rigby shook her head anxiously. “No, not at all. It’s just, you know, we’re--”

“--Yeah, yeah, I know, supposed to be inspiration for the band and all that junk. Look, go put your face back in the jar where it belongs. This is important,” Taste of Honey interrupted.

“Jar?” Eleanor Rigby muttered, perplexed.


Rolling her eyes, Taste of Honey turned back to Mark and said, “I think I may have found a way for you to impress her.”

“Okay, I’m listening,” Mark responded, extinguishing his cigarette.

“Well, I’ve just received word from my cousin. It seems your lady will be taking part in the anti-protest.”

“So, what does that have to do with me?”

Taste of Honey sighed and said slowly, “Well, you see, it looks like they won’t have enough people participating to even equal the number of protesters. Even if we got the band’s ladies together, there would probably not be enough.”

“I don’t follow.”

“If only I knew someone with a lot of clout… someone who could somehow rally together a lot of people to help out. I mean, if I were involved in some kind of anti-protest like this, I’d be really impressed if some guy I knew took the time to get a whole ton of people together to help out.”

Mark’s eyes widened, and he said, “Okay, now I get what you’re saying. How much time do we have, and how do you think we should get word out to the maximum number of people?”

“Social networking websites and word of mouth. Put stuff up on the band site, too. And as incentive… I don’t know… offer a free show or something to everyone who takes part.”

Mark grinned and replied, “You are a genius! So, are you ever going to tell me your real name?”

“Some other time. Focus on rallying the troops together first,” Taste of Honey replied, then thought to herself, See, I can be good for inspiration, too.


“Hey, check this out,” Mona called out to a friend. “Free concert.” She gestured at the monitor excitedly, grinning madly.

“By who?” her friend asked, not even looking up from the video game.

“Who do you think? Our favorite band.”

“You don’t mean Xero Gravity?”

“None other.”

“So, what’s the catch?” her friend asked.

Mona turned to her friend and replied, “Do you have next Saturday afternoon free?”

“Yeah, I think so. Why?”

“We are going to be taking part in a little anti-protest. If we do, we get to attend a free concert.”

“So,” her friend asked, “who are we protesting against… or protesting protesting against… or whatever it is?”

Mona read the information again, then replied, “Apparently, some people are protesting against this fashion company.”

“Which company?”

“Elemental Fashions.”

“Eh, they have nice stuff. Are we protesting them?”

“No, we’re protesting the protestors.”

“Wait, what? I don’t get it.”

“Neither do I, but there’s a free concert involved,” Mona responded.


“We’ve got fifty people gathered together to help us out,” a woman announced to Julia. “Do you think that’s enough?”

“Oh, of course it will,” Julia replied. “It’s not like there’s going to be a mob fighting against us, right?”

“Yeah, you’re right. What could possibly go wrong?”

“At the very worst, a few people at the show might be offended. We won’t be killing anyone or throwing paint or flour on anyone, though. So, I can’t see how anyone will have a problem with what we’ll be doing.”

“We’re just exercising our right to free speech. It’s not right that women should be objectified in such a manner.”

“Right, we’re just exercising our natural rights.”